Gen Z, little microphones, and reality TV gays

Little microphones, Gen Z, reality TV gays, Southern Hospitality, Madonna, and are mustaches glib? 

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

I don't like this. I don't like this. I don't like this. Podcast. Hello. Welcome back. How's everybody doing? How's everyone doing? How are my good people of the world? Good. Not good. Seems like a lot of people are not good. Justifiable. Justifiable with everything going on. I don't blame ya. Couldn't blame ya. Couldn't blame you for a thing, honestly. You're perfect just the way you are. What if I pivot this into one of those podcasts or those tracks that you put on before you go to sleep? And it can just be positive things about you. You're beautiful. You're brilliant. You're really great taste in podcasts. I'll just keep repeating that over and over and over again. Yeah. Listen, we are going to be instituting some changes eventually. One of them being, I think I think I'm going to cave on the lo-fi quality a little bit and get a nice microphone. I'm going to do it. One of those little clippy microphones. Even though I think that's a good subject for something that I don't like. Those little microphones that everybody has. Everyone's got a little microphone these days. There's something. There's something annoying about them. They're so small. And I don't know. I just miss like a big chunky microphone, you know? It's either the big chunky microphone or like Madonna with the cone bra on tour, sort of call center microphone. That's another good microphone. Another good microphone are those little forehead ones that those Broadway singers or people, I don't know if they're all just singers, wear them. You know, they're like little lines that come down in the middle of their foreheads. Those are the three good microphones. Anything beyond that, no good. Including this headphone mic, unfortunately, which so we're just trading one bad headphone for another. So I think it's okay. It's a lateral move to those little clippy microphones. Those little clippy microphones are so what is it about them? It's just a little like it's like we're not going the extra mile to make the microphone invisible. We're gonna accentuate the fact that we're holding a microphone because you don't have to. You just put it on your lapel. You know, I'm thinking of like subway takes where they put it on the card. They're accentuating the microphone. You could just put it on the lapel, I think. Maybe you couldn't because you're on the subway or something. So fine. But in that genre, you know what I'm talking about. Just go one way or the other. The cutesy little microphone that I'm just gonna hold in my hand like a little influencer. No. No. No. We can't do it. We can't do it, fam, but I'm gonna do it, is the moral of this. So I'm gonna do a lot of things that I can't do.

SPEAKER_00 3:23

You're gonna do a lot of things that you can't do. You're gonna do a lot of things that you can't do. You have great tastes in podcasts.

SPEAKER_02 3:31

You're beautiful. You're beautiful and I'm upstate. I'm upstate and alone. As God intended. And I think that's also gonna precipitate a change, which is we're we're gonna walk. We're gonna walk and I'm gonna talk. So are you ready? Because we're gonna go outside. We're also on a somewhat low battery, so this experiment might be short-lived. We're gonna have to wrap this up if my battery dies, or if I see anybody. I think it's really embarrassing to do this in public. But we're gonna take risks. I wonder if you can hear the bird song.

SPEAKER_00 4:15

The rustle of the wind in the leaves.

SPEAKER_02 4:18

It's beautiful. It's beautiful, you're beautiful. You're beautiful, you're beautiful. You're beautiful, it's true. We're in a singing mood today. We're in a singing mood, I guess we're in a good mood. Are you in a good mood? Can you hear the crunch of dead leaves and grass underfoot? Yeah, I think you can. Audio quality is really what we're big on here. Focus, focus, we gotta focus on you. Not on this beautiful nature all around me. What a time. What a time. I feel a little disconnected because I'm up here, so I don't know if I have my finger on the pulse of the New York City street scene that I know you all come to me for. When I left, it was it was hot and then it was cold. As my friend says, my friend Megan Reynolds says it's Katy Perry weather. She makes that joke. Every time the temperature fluctuates from hot and cold, it's hot and it's cold. It's okay. It's okay. She's beautiful. As are you, as are we all. No, the vibes in New York not great. I don't think the vibes anywhere are particularly great. So I don't feel bad getting away from all that and being here. Because I just feel like it's a weird time, man. It's a weird. It's a weird time. The vibes are off, people are tired. It's another summer that I don't think is like a summer of joy. You know, it's just sort of, I think, happening. You know what I mean? Oh, there's a delivery. Just gonna ignore them. Truck doesn't need to see me. Podcasting doesn't need to see us. Doing the embarrassing act of podcasting. Let's go down to the shore. Let's go down to the shore. Do you hear the waves? Is this relaxing? See, this is all I think this is the pivot. I think we should all be pivoting to relaxation content. Because we're gonna have to pivot to something. It's actually kind of loud. Difficult to talk over the water. I hope you can hear it, or else there's just a lot of dead noise on this episode. Um yeah, we're all gonna have to pivot to something. That's something I'm thinking a lot about these days. What am I gonna pivot to when publishing disappears? When I lose my rent-stabilized apartment. What are we doing? Where are we going? You know, we're always thinking that these days in America. Where are we gonna move to? What's the backup plan? Turnip farmer. I don't know, but we're very privileged here, aren't we? We're very privileged to ponder such little inconsequential things when people are being bombed around the world. So count your blessings, little beautiful being. Or don't if you're one of those people being bombed. I mean, I guess still count your blessings, but far be it for me to tell you to do so. Oh, I can just go on. This isn't gonna be it. We're not doing this permanently. Don't unsubscribe. If you're in line, stay in line for this podcast. It's not gonna be this forever, unless everybody really likes it. We're gonna get back to the streets. We're gonna get back to New York City, we're gonna get back to that beautiful and tightful content where we spot things like those pushy foam butter bars. You know, I could have pitched that, I could have pitched that uh to New York magazine. What's going on with these butter bars? That's why I became a writer. That's why I became a writer, do stuff like that. Yeah, I don't know. Been having thoughts like that recently. What's it all for? What am I doing? What's going on with my career? As the great chair once tweeted. No one knows. Nobody knows for sure. There was this really there was this really um sad children's tape when I was growing up that my parents had for us. I had all these little songs with little stories, and one of them was about this kid who was sick in the hospital, and it was like, is he gonna live? Is he gonna die? Nobody knows for sure. Someone might come along.

SPEAKER_01 9:24

Do do do.

SPEAKER_02 9:25

It was bleak. It was bleak, but it was real. But it was real, and I suppose that's why we turned to it as children. We were already hungry for reality. For the realness. No. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. This is just pitter patter. This is just pitter patter. No, sorry, putter patter. This is putter patter. We're puttering, we're pattering. This is not the real deep insightful content. We can get to that. Do you want to get to that? Do you want to get to that? Because you know, you know, one of my topics is Gen Z. That's right. Truth bombs. Truth bombs are coming. But I feel like that's kind of a lot to start with. So maybe we don't do Gen Z straight up up top. Oh, you know what we could talk about straight up up top? Is anybody watching um Southern Hospitality? Good show, good show. Emmy on there is a little cuckoo bird. A little racist cuckoo bird who's also being cheated on uh by her husband, apparently, or fiance, I should say. And we s we stand. Unfortunately, we do stand. No, we don't. No, we don't. Um, but there is oh, these beautiful wild irises. Gosh, I wish you could all see me. I wish this was a visual podcast. No, okay, so there's a gay guy on Southern Hospitality, his name is Michaels, and he has done this thing which drives me nuts. I don't like this. Okay, tap that. Sound effect cue. I don't like this. I don't like it when gay people, especially newly come out gay people, go on a reality TV show and trash talk their parents who are not on the show for not accepting them and not loving them. Michaels did this, Raquel did this from the Rony Reboot. They go on the show and they talk to everybody, they talk to the world about basically how their parents are homophobic and horrible, hateful people. And that I think is such a crummy thing to do to your parents. Sure. Could the parents be homophobic? Sure, could they have problems? But as has happened on both of those shows, both of those instances, the parents have been really upset with their kid for saying this stuff on national TV because they're, you know, the parent is probably struggling, doing what they can do, dealing with a lot of change. Are they cool with it? Maybe not. Are they trying to get used to it? Probably. Are they dealing with a lot of things? I'm sure. And then they have this bratty little kid who's gonna go on reality TV and blah blah blah blah and is gonna go and trash talk them to the world. To the world, instead of bringing it to the parent, and the parents aren't even on the show, so the parent can't even say anything. And then in both those cases, the next season, the parent, well, no, I guess Raquel's family didn't say the next season, maybe on the reunion or something, but they're like, uh, dude, WTF, what are you doing? That's really hurtful. And the little kid, the little brat, the little brat goes on there and acts like the victim, and it's like you have to grow up. And I do think it is a baby queer syndrome. Because think baby queers are still in a space where they're the victim, but I think as you get older, one of the things about gay people is think well, let me not generalize a positive attribute about gay people, but you do tend to get a little more forgiving and understanding of stuff. I think because you grow up in families of people who aren't like you, usually, you know, you're maybe you're the only queer person, so you I think you you pretty quickly develop some grace for people who don't have your life experience, and maybe say the wrong thing sometimes, or maybe act the wrong way sometimes, or even hurt you a little bit sometimes. I think you develop the grace to not nitpick those people, not browbeat them, but take the higher road, higher road, I guess, but you know, just sort of be chill and be normal and move on. And unfortunately, I think these people are going on these shows early in their gay experiences and not realizing that that's the more worthwhile thing to do. So it's unfortunate. I don't like it. I do like the show. I do want Southern hospitality to get renewed, so please watch it. Emmy is Emmy is one for the ages. Who else is good on that show? The other gay guy. Oh, the lead. The lead who I think looks like Miley Cyrus' mom, a younger version of Miley Cyrus' mom. And I've had people tell me no, but I insist. Nevertheless, I persist that what's her face from Southern Hospitality looks like a younger version of Miley Cyrus' mom. Put that on the record. Hope all the neighbors hear this. They need to know where I stand on that. Um okay. Okay, I don't like that. I don't like that, and then now that we're warmed up with that bit of with that bit of spite. Oh, you know who actually has a good short story along those lines? I do not remember the name of the author. But the story collection is called White People. It was written in the 80s. I read it sometime in the 2010s, so it was a little while ago. I forget what his name is, but he's a gay guy, he's a white gay guy, and one of the short stories in that collection is the gay guy coming home to his parents after he's gone to like college or moved to a big city, and he's so snooty and so condescending. And I always really liked it because it's one of those stories that shows gay people in a negative but honest light and how they interact with other people because it feels really accurate to reality. Certainly, I could identify it with it of going home and being sort of like a cocky little prince and being like, oh, you don't know all that, and oh you're still doing this. You know, and sure, is he kind of a victim of homophobia? Sure, but he's also just an ass. Um and I think we need more gay asses. We always need more gay asses. We're always saying this. I'm always saying this. And we have a lot of gay asses around. It's a good story. It's a good story. The uh, what is it called? I don't know what it's called. The short story collection is called White People. Is it Matthew Clam? I don't know. I don't know, I'm not gonna look it up because my attention is focused on you and these little plants all around me. The little package that they left. So look that up. I do like that. I do like that. I'll find that. Matthew D'Ambrosio? No, that's somebody else. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. You're gonna find it. You're gonna find it, I do recommend it. Collection is called White People. I think it was written in the 80s. It's kind of the only one I remember. I think the story I think the idea is the stories are about race, but they're about whiteness. I think that was the thing. I think after 2020, some people also picked it up for that reason, or he he did some speaking things. I read it earlier than that, I'll have you know. And it was written earlier than that. But we digress. You know who was born after the 80s? Gen Z. Gen Z is in crisis, and I think we've talked about this before, but I feel like this is gonna be a perennial theme. It was really on my mind. So tap, tap, tap. Sound effect, sound effect, sound effect. I don't like this. I don't like this. I don't like this Gen Z boom. No, and first of all, you know I'm just being provocative. You know that that sound bite is just clickbait. It's just clickbait, babes. Don't believe it. Don't believe it, don't believe the media, don't believe the lame stream media that you're listening to right now. I do, of course, have so much love in my heart for Gen Z. But here's the thing. And I maybe I think we did already talk about this. I think we already talked about how I talked to a few people who were 28 in that range who were claiming that they were millennials. They wanted to be millennials. And first of all, that I I mean I don't make the rules, but I don't think that's true. But what seems more remarkable is that people want to be millennials now. A few years ago, millennials were not cool, right? Side parts, skinny jeans, blah blah blah blah blah, cringe, chooggy. Now, what does Gen Z have? Manosphere Nazis. Nobody wants to be Gen Z. People want to be millennials. People want to claim that. Sorry, Toots. Sorry, Tuts. I remember what you said. I remember what you did. I remember what you thought when I showed up. My skinny jeans and my Rafflecopter. Huh? You don't even remember Rafflecopter. You don't remember Awkward Turtle, man. So get out of here, man. This ain't your town. This ain't your turf. It's awkward turtle time. Yeah. No. No, it's okay. It's fine. There's room for everybody. But I think the thing. The thing is not the thing that I don't like is not Gen Z. I think it's the vibe right now. We've talked about the sinister vibe before. And that's kind of it. But but but but hold on. Just go with me on this journey. What precipitated this, and I say this all with love and light, in case anybody, in case this man is listening, the guy from Middle Brow, I think his name is Dan Rosen. Posted something, you know, he posts he's a comedian, he posts comedy stuff. He posted something that I was like, ugh, this annoys me. Annoys me. I can see where it's coming from. He posted something about like leftist books, the last chapter of leftist books. And he's making fun of or lampooning how they pivot to hopefulness, the last chapter of describing everything that's wrong with the world, and they grab at these empty solutions, these kind of you might call them millennial word salad solutions. Millennial 2020s, worlds word salad solutions, you know, mutual aid, mutual aid, that kind of stuff. These kind of empty community, mutual aid community, these empty, in his mind, I guess, empty phrases. Or I guess in the in the in the presentation of this joke. And it's stuck in my craw. And again, love and light to you, Mr. Rosen, if you're listening, or whatever. But it's stuck in my craw because I wrote a book. You all know it, you've all read it, you all love it. It's your boy. It's your boy dream facades. And the last chapter I was thinking about that kind of thing. I was thinking about the last chapter because I read Lauren Berlant's. Which one was it? I don't remember which one it was. Maybe it was Cru Optimism. Maybe it was one of the other ones. Anyway, but I think it was Cruel Optimism. I don't remember. Um, but the last chapter of that book does pivot to like, yeah, what is good art or activism or whatever, a good creations that they want. Highlight and it was kind of weak. I was like, really? This is I think it was like Occupy Wall Street adjacent kind of stuff, and I was like, okay, this was kind of tepid, like these creations don't seem to be that uh commensurate to the stakes that you've set up in the rest of the book. And so that was in my mind when I wrote my book. And so I was trying to not do the same thing with my book, so I ended my book being like maybe we should overthrow the United States. But I tried to phrase it in a casual way because as I was reflecting on it now, because uh as I saw this post, I'm like, oh, should I have gone harder? Should I have gone harder in the last chapter of my book and been more like aggressive and heroic? But I think that was the thing that I was uh trying not to do, was trying not to do these big heroic antics because I gravitate toward and more interesting, the whole book is kind of about lesser, lower key, lower key aesthetic regimes, you could say, that are just as influential, just as powerful. So it's like really influenced by Cyan Nai, and you know, she writes a lot about these anti-heroic or non-heroic aesthetic categories, like cute things or boredom that shape the world just as much as the really heroic and dramatic emotions like the sublime or beauty or agony or anger or terror. There's all these minor categories, I think is what she calls them. Anyway, anyway, we're digressing, we're digressing intellectually. So so this thing, this thing caught my craw, whatever, it's not a big deal. But I think a part of what bothered me about it, and what brings me back to the Gen Z in the current mood, is the glibness. Because, like, you know, he it's like a character writing all these things. As the character that he's acting out in his little Instagram reel or TikTok or whatever, is the author writing and reaching for these cliches, these empty cliches in his eyes, empty cliches, and the caption was something like, I think it's gonna take more than that. I don't know that's gonna be enough. Something like that. And the thing is, it's the glib, it's the glib slop come back, where it's just about being glib, about what other people are doing earnestly without actually putting yourself out there and saying what you think it takes. You're not setting out your whole book and doing your thing. Maybe you are, maybe you are Sir Rosen, Mr. Rosen. I don't use honorifics, I don't know why I called you sir. Uh, even Mr. feels a little odd. Um, Dan, I suppose that's his name. Middle brow man, one half the middle brow man, one of the middle brow men. Um, love and light. And you know, uh I think that's the thing is people are really drawn to this glib kind of dunking on things. A not specifically, name names. Name names, name names, put it out there, say what you're talking about, be unafraid to do that. And yeah, what's your solution? You know, what do what do you propose? What should they be saying instead? Use you it's so easy now, I think it's so popular now in this Gen Z mood to call out other people, dunk on other people for what they're doing wrong, while being scared to put yourself out there genuinely. Everything is hidden behind glibness, irony, artifice, because that's all people are giving to each other. So everybody gets even more afraid to put themselves out there genuinely. So, this is what I'm saying about Gen Z that I don't like.

SPEAKER_00 26:19

I don't like this.

SPEAKER_02 26:21

I don't like this hiding behind glibness, this insincerity, this dunking on other people. It's just a bummer. It's a big bummer. You know, I'm thinking a lot about Madonna. I'm not thinking that much about Madonna. I have a friend who's thinking about Madonna a lot. Shout out to you. If you're listening, you know who you are. A friend who's on a Madonna journey, and we love that. We always love someone on Madonna journey. And it I was thinking about Madonna and Lady Gaga, and Madonna talking about how when she was young, she could go around the streets of New York and perform and experiment and be wild and crazy and do drugs and be a mess and do all this crap, and nobody knew, and it wouldn't haunt her for career, and it would just come and go, and she could do whatever and disappear the next day, and that way she could sort of build a stronger character, I guess. Build a stronger identity, build a stronger creative approach. And Lady Gaga didn't really have that luxury. Lady Gaga coming up, you know, there's the Facebook group at NYU that Stephanie Germanato will never be famous. She was the beginning of that criticism, but I and I think Madonna once commented on that. But I think it's gotten worse, obviously, since Madonna since Lady Gaga's time. Because Lady Gaga was coming up what? She's like my age, so she early late 2000s, early 2010s. So, like, yeah, there was Facebook and everything, but it wasn't huge. It wasn't huge, it wasn't like everybody had a phone out all the time recording everything. Now, now who what's the person after Lady Gaga going around New York City trying to come up and experiment? They couldn't do that at all. There's no anonymity. You can't go and be a total crazy mess on a random Tuesday night pushing the limits and testing things and making mistakes. Being a creative girl and putting yourself out there, you know, you can't be a Marnie Jacobs. That's a reference for Lena Dunham, my literary nemesis in the making, we're hoping. Tune in to an earlier episode if you missed that. You know, you can't be the creative girl who puts herself out there and took a risk anymore at all. And I feel like it's just a cliche. Obviously, that everybody, or I guess, like especially Gen Z is so scared to actually present themselves and is too scared to do things like get drunk or act messy. The crazy thing is them not I'm I'm sound so old right now. I sound so old and I know that.

SPEAKER_01 29:03

But every time I see somebody be like, oh wow, I wish you could go out and dance in clubs or whatever, we could never dance like that now.

SPEAKER_02 29:11

It's like that blows my mind and seems so sad to me because when I was in college, I was dancing, I was a mess, I was a disaster. Are there some pictures? Yes. Do I remember when one of my friends put them on Facebook? Yes. So they are out there, but it was such a fun time because you could just be so messy and such a disaster, and it didn't matter, and it was great, it was just great, and so not to be able to have those times seems like a huge bummer, bummer sauce, man. Like that blows, it takes away the whole fun of being young. You know, if you can't be a mess when you're young, you when are you gonna be a mess? When are you gonna get that time? When are you gonna have that fun, man? Gen Z ain't no fun. I think that's the thing. It's all kind of just it's what is it? The mood is not. I wrote something down. Yeah, everything is glib, but nothing is joyful. No one can have fun, but also no one can be serious. Think about that. Did you get that? Did you get what I just said? No one can have fun, but also no one can be serious. You're stuck in this double bind state where you never want to be serious, you never want to be pinned down to what you're saying, to what you feel, to what you're doing, because you're so scared of the public criticism, but you also can't really let loose and have fun and be silly. So you're always stuck. This Gen Z mode is stuck walking this line. And is it a Gen Z mode or is it just the 2020s mode of being kind of stuck? But you know what? I think it might be a Gen Z thing, because look at me. I'm not Gen Z, I'm a millennial. I'm putting my touche out here on the internet, making this podcast, singing, singing, taking your walks. I'm making a fool of myself. I'm making a fool of myself for you. Put myself out there creatively. So that's a lot. That's a lot that I just spewed out there, but but again, no hate to the middle brow guy. He's working in the current mode. He's working in the current mode, but it really did make me feel like this kind of glib, it's not even irony, but this kind of glib eye roll smugness. Would that work in a different era? I don't think it would. I don't think it would be so kind of broadly accepted, applauded, enjoyed. I don't think I don't think people used to really be like that. I don't know that people are always gonna be like that. It just seems like a bummer, man. It doesn't seem fun. It doesn't seem fun, and it's not serious. So where is it gonna go? It's not gonna build up to anything. You gotta let that go, everybody. We gotta let that go. No more glib slop. No more glib slop. You know, I do think is related maybe to the criticism boom. Everybody's a critic these days now, you know, because everybody is a critic these days. Everybody gets on social media and can say they're whatever and be a critic, but everybody just wants to comment on what other people are doing because that's way safer than actually doing something. Huh? Huh. So just do something. And yeah, yeah, wise guy, I do get the irony that I am just commenting on other people doing stuff right now, and I'm not actually doing. But, but, but I'm writing my book, writing another book, writing the novel, and and um for everything that happens around now, just keep in mind that I am deep in book writing psychosis, which is this constant state of it's not agitable, but sort of deep. It's not an existential terror, it's just more like a uh tightness of the soul. It's more like you're gonna explode. The feeling of imminent explosion of the self at any moment needs to be in that book writing psychosis. That's kind of what it feels like. So everything is kind of a lot. So take it all with a grain of salt. Put a salt all around your table. Salt bay. Salt bay. Huh? That's millennial. Get some salt bay on here.

SPEAKER_00 33:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 33:58

I feel like those are my big things. Um, other things that we do need to touch on. Mustaches, what's going on with mustaches? Do you have a mustache? Tell me about your mustache. Why do you have a mustache? Why are mustaches everywhere? Has something been written about this? Intelligencer, New York Mag? Did they do that? Who would do something like that? I feel like Paris Review would do something about mustaches. The baffler, maybe? The Drift? No. What does the Drift publish these days? I have no idea. Um yeah, just why why why why do all these guys have mustaches now? Why is everyone got a mustache? What's going on? What's going on with that? I don't hate it, but I don't trust it. If you know what I mean. I don't really trust a mustache. Shifty. Trying to be masculine, sort of parodying masculine? I guess again it's it's it's kind of glib. Or mustache is glib. Is there a glibness there? Like you're winking at the idea of looking more manly and saying, oh, but I'm just kind of joking about it. You're not serious about it, but I do want to look more manly. So don't I look more manly? Oh, but it's just a joke. I'm not trying to be more manly. Is that the kind of thing? And I guess some people are trying to look more manly. It's more straightforward. Less glib, just neurotic. In there. There are a lot, actually. Um Summerhouse continues. Obviously, Queen Lindsay Hubbard rise above all things. First, foremost, paramount. Kyle Cook, second in line, the royal prince of my Summerhouse Kingdom, always has been. Always has been. And you know why? Because he works. He works. My thing about people on reality TV is I am so concerned about what is their retirement plan. This is my thing with below deck. Below deck for a long time used to stress me out. Because what is their retirement plan? What are these little people? Aisha. Aisha's great at her job. She can't do this forever. She doesn't want to do this forever. Does she have a 401k? What country does she register in to live? Where is she paying taxes? Social Security? Do they have that in New Zealand? I don't know what's happening there. And it stresses me out. So, Kyle, I always appreciated because he was a man with a plan from the very beginning. I didn't have to worry about him because I knew he was working hard. He had not only his business, lover boy, fine, I'll never drink it. I'm not a drinker. But he also works hard every season to give us a storyline, a drama. He's engaged, he's giving us something to watch from day dot. The others aren't really doing that, obviously, except for Lindsay. Lindsay Lindsay does that. Lindsay shows up to work. She gets it, she clocks in. She clocks in. She activates. And they put me at ease for that reason. I feel like I don't have to worry about them. Some of these other little doodads running around. I'm like, oh god. I guess I'm just an empath. I'm an empath through the screen. I feel for them. Can't help it. I can't help it. Um, I never liked Amanda. I'll be honest. Sorry. Sorry. I never liked Amanda because she is low vibrational. A foundational. That you understand that. And she's always expecting Kyle to work and support her. And yet complaining that he's working too hard and not spending the time with her. And it's like, dude, what are you doing? Launching a swimler line. Where did that go? That didn't put me at ease. It's gone now. Who knows? Who knows what happened there? She didn't make any money. She probably lost money off the swimler line. So I never liked that. She was always on Kyle's case. And now, Kyle Cooknation. Kyle Cooknation has is reigning supreme. The city has a new villain. That guy, the finance guy, the ex-finance guy, is some sinister energy. He's got sinister energy for sure. He's got sinister finance guy energy. All these shows you should be watching. I was thinking that maybe I should rank the Bravo shows for people who are looking for something to watch of all the Bravo shows on now. I could do that regularly. That could be a segment. Bravo. That's what I could call it. Bravo. You know, not like Bravo, but like Bravo. Why is it Bravo channel, but you say Bravo? A Bravo? I guess a Bravo is like a noun?

SPEAKER_00 38:59

Hmm.

SPEAKER_02 39:00

That I didn't unpack in Dream Facade, so I guess we're getting that here, you know. This is like the un unfiltered the back matter or whatever, you know, the extra. This is these are the annotated footnotes in Pale Fire. Dream Facades is the poem. Uh, what would be up top now? What's up top?

unknown 39:25

What's up?

SPEAKER_02 39:26

I mean Summer House for sure, though that's ending. Atlanta. Atlanta, Rhode Island. I don't watch Top Chef, sorry. Below Deck is doing well. I don't know, I really didn't think about this at all. So I'm just naming shows at you, which great. I don't think that's what you're here for. Um we didn't run out of battery. We also didn't get very far walking wise, so maybe we can walk more. I have so much more to say. I have so much more to say with you all. I hope this is fun. We need to talk about chapters. I don't like chapters right now. It's okay. It's okay, we'll get into it. Um just gonna tease you with that for next week, maybe if I remember. Um I hope this is fun. I hope you're enjoying this. I hope you like the putter. The time flies by for me. I'm enjoying this, and that's what matters. I hope that shines through. We're you know, we'll keep trudging away, we'll keep building the jackhead nation. One day we're gonna do live events, and you all are gonna meet each other and you're gonna feel community. Okay, so this is the other thing, also. Community well, community and mutual aid are are actually powerful things. And I think he also mentioned something like indigenous knowledge, and it's like, okay, well, I have some reservations about you diminishing all this stuff that may actually not be as heroic as what you have in mind. I have no idea what you have in mind because you didn't say anything. Glib, Mr. Glib. But some of these things that are not as heroic, I think, are more foundational to long-term change. I just I just keep thinking about like how tech people change the world so non-heroically, so boringly. Like some of the most boring people just change the world so dramatically to the point that I don't think any of us can ever conceive of a world without things like smartphones or the internet. The internet, which didn't even exist a few decades ago, it's now like inconceivable that we would ever not have that in some form. You know, whatever utopian society people are envisioning, I feel like it always has the internet, it always has these technological things that we just take as a given now. I feel like that kind of deep psychological change about what we expect from the the baseline assumptions of what we expect from the world did not have to do with super heroic revolution. I mean, I guess the most would be like Apple. Is is Tim Cook heroic change? Is Steve Jobs, I guess, the most heroic? Bill Gates is heroic change? I don't think so. You know, now you have people like Elon Musk trying to wear that mantle, but they're failing. Because I don't think that kind of change really is heroic, it's just sort of insidious. It's just insidious advertising, mindset change, information change. So that's why I think those things like mutual aid networks, community, if they're really radical changes, land back, which I write about in my book, these kind of radical changes that are foundational to the way we live, foundational to our sense of self and way of being, way of existing, actually have more of a potential to really change the world in an enduring way, as opposed to like just starting a contested election or something. Not that that's dumb, like I do think that is a place, but you get what I'm saying. You get what I'm saying. You're you got you all are smart. You all are smart and beautiful, and I adore you. I'm in community with you. I would love to exchange aid with you. If you're Native American, I would love to give you land back, sure. Um and not being glib, not being glib. It was just an awkward construction that I was having fun with. Okay, man. Mr. Glib. This is a millennial speaking. I'm here for the millennials. I'm here for the millennials and I'm here for Madonna. Let's do that. No, I'm not. No, I'm not. I'm here for you. Whoever you are, I adore you. I don't like this. I don't like this. I don't like this podcast.